Kutaisi
State University English Studies
Department is the author and initiator of many interesting projects. The
hardworking department is very popular not only in Georgia but abroad as
well. British and American experts highly appreciated the department earlier
than Georgian colleagues but today it is very well known inside the country.
The teacher training conference for the universities of Western Georgia was
the definite proof of the department being a success.

The
department has the many years of experience arranging workshops and seminars
for Kutaisi school teachers either alone or with foreign colleagues. But
this time it was different. The conference was held on the initiative of the
head of KSU for university teachers and professors. In fact, all
universities of Western Georgia (Batumi, Sukhumi, Poti, Zugdidi, Kutaisi)
took part into the conference. It was attended by the guests of honour –
Professors Rusudan Enukidze, head of the TSU English Philology Department,
Professor Nino Kirvalidze, head of the ESD at Tbilisi University of European
Languages and Culture, Assistant Professor Rusudan Tkemaladze, British
Cuncil ELT Development manager, ETAG ntional director, Assistant Professor
Manana Gigineishvili, TSU, Assistant Professor Maia Kikvidze, Batumi State
University; Assistant Professor Irina
Goshkheteliani, head of the of English Philology Department, Batumi State
University. There were 82 participants all together. 18 among 20 presenters
were KSU ESD young teachers and 2 American instructors Jerry Peverall and
Andrian Block.

The aim of the conference was to show our
colleagues the way we work with our students by incorporating new methods of
teaching based on communicative approach.

At the workshops we did our best to let our
colleagues know how we can make the teaching process successful,
progressive, and how to get the best results in all skills of teaching:
listening, speaking, reading and writing. We tried to prove that interaction
between speakers and listeners, or readers and writers is the aim of
communicative approach. That’s why we design activities that use authentic
language and involve a real exchange of information. These activities help
students engage in meaningful and authentic language rather than to practice
language patterns that help them meet the demands of real-life English.

The
itinerary of the conference was very busy and interesting. There were three
concurrent sessions in different
aspects of the language at different levels. This enabled the participants
to choose the one according to their interests.

Later guests were invited to the English
Speaking Club where they met our students as the successful proof of all our
work. They were impressed by their English, by their general knowledge and
their language skills that is so difficult to achieve in non-English
speaking environment.

At the end of the busy and interesting day,
the guests were given the chance to visit wonderful landscape out of Kutaisi
and enjoy the past with historical cathedrals once again.

The
second day was as busy and interesting as the first one. Apart from
attending the sessions in different modules
and taking active part in it, the participants were also given the chance to
see the “portfolios” of different modules and get acquainted with the way we
arrange our teaching materials. They were more than impressed by what was
shown: by the equipment, by the library, by the documents showing the life
of the department.

At the end of the conference the participants
were given certificates by the rector of KSU. He greeted the guests and
wished them success in their future professional collaboration with the
department.

The
head of ESD, professor Madonna Megrelishvili was the last to sum up a two
day conference. She thanked the participants for coming and taking active
part into the conference and wished future co-operation. She also noticed
that in spite of the fact that the presenters were young, they as a rule
worked under supervision of older generation who share their knowledge and
experience with them every day and help them improve their professional
career.

The participants also made final speeches.
They highly appreciated the conference as the best example of sharing
knowledge and giving instructions. They thanked for this busy, interesting,
fruitful and definitely useful conference. They went home with lots of ideas
and a great wish to introduce the way and methods to their home universities
as soon as possible.